December 08, 2007

Yes, apparently it is "Wishful thinking: No impeachment for Bush, Cheney" (your editorial, Dec. 4) to expect that those who swear to defend the Constitution will actually uphold their oath. Never thought we'd see the day when our so-called leaders would find so many excuses to let the rule of law slip away.

In Philadelphia, you can join the Human Chain for Peace, which will extend from the V.A.Hospital at 38th St. & Woodland Ave. to Independence Mall, beginning to assemble at noon. At 1:00 p.m. the march to the rally will begin at the V.A., picking up the "links" in the Chain as it proceeds north and east toward Independence Mall. Or join the big Rally/Concert on Independence Mall from 2:00 to 5:00 pm, with speakers and music/poetry at this landmark event! More info here.

"Fresh Air from WHYY, September 5, 2007 · Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for a series detailing how often President Bush used "signing statements" — controversial assertions of a chief executive's right to bypass provisions of new laws.

"Fresh Air from WHYY, September 4, 2007 · In The Israel Lobby, which grew out of a controversial 2006 article in the London Review of Books, Stephen Walt and co-author John Mearsheimer examine the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. They argue that American support for Israel cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds.

"Walt teaches international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government."

July 29, 2007

Sami Al-Hajj, Prisoner 345 at Guantanamo, was arrested in December 2001 while traveling to Pakistan as a cameraman for Al Jazeera. He has been on a hunger strike since January 7, 2007. More at NPR's On the Media, July 29, 2007, and Prisoner345.net.

June 03, 2007

Another June as Torture Awareness Month has arrived, while the Bush-Cheney administration finalizes secret new rules for "enhanced interrogation techniques." As conservative Andrew Sullivan blogs for the Atlantic (May 29), the Nazis coined the phrase (Verschärfte Vernehmung) in 1937. One objective was to avoid leaving marks that could be cited as evidence in court.

Unlike Bush and Rumsfeld, the Nazis initially drew the line at hypothermia and waterboarding, but about 1943 the French Gestapo experimented with what was euphemistically termed the "cold bath" technique on Resistance captives, later exporting it to Norway and Czechoslovakia. In Norway in 1948 three Nazis were found guilty of war crimes for "enhanced interrogation," despite a defense that is "almost verbatim that of the Bush administration."

Sullivan continues, "Freezing prisoners to near-death, repeated beatings, long forced-standing, waterboarding, cold showers in air-conditioned rooms, stress positions [Arrest mit Verschaerfung], withholding of medicine and leaving wounded or sick prisoners alone in cells for days on end—all these have occurred at US detention camps under the command of President George W. Bush. Over a hundred documented deaths have occurred in these interrogation sessions. The Pentagon itself has conceded homicide by torture in multiple cases."

No one is equating Bush with Hitler, but the United States fought World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War without descending to torture. In the words of Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission, "The cool, carefully considered, methodical, prolonged, and repeated subjection of captives to physical torment, and the accompanying psychological terror, is immoral." And as the New York Times (May 29) reports, "Experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable."

It's past time for Congress to rein in—since the Democrats haven't yet found the courage to impeach—a team that our own intelligence experts acknowledge has on balance only fueled terrorism.

Amnesty International, the ACLU, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and others will hold a DC rally and lobbying Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice on June 26—details at www.AmnestyBucksMont.org. If you can't join us for the trip, sign the petition and call on Congress to support the restoration of habeas corpus, the repair of the Military Commissions Act, and an end to torture.

January 27, 2007

On January 11 and 24, 2007, Coalition for Peace Action (Central Bucks) and Upper Bucks for Democracy co-hosted Cristi Charpentier and Shawn Nolan, of the Federal Defender's Office, E.D. Pa., and recently returned from Guantánamo, where they have been working with detainee clients. They spoke about the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, the denial of habeas corpus, and the dangers they pose for U.S. Constitutional law and basic human rights.

Charpentier: “So my answer [to question] is that the Military Commissions Act does not afford the detainees a fair trial, and the Congress would have been better off to take heed from what the Supreme Court was truly telling them in the decision of Hamdan, which is that if you aren't going to use the civil courts, which is where I practice, use the Code of Military Justice. We have things in place. And so you as involved taxpayers—or else you wouldn’t be here, you as involved citizens, you know, should really hear that.”

“They’ve been stripped of habeas corpus, and they can’t challenge their detention,” Nolan says. “Some of them have been there five years. There’s no due process.”

Charpentier and Nolan participated in the Guantánamo teach-in on October 5, 2006, at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. Charpentier grew up in Doylestown and graduated from CB West. Raised in the area, Nolan graduated from Lansdale Catholic High School.

January 19, 2007

A New Chance for Peace?By Jimmy Carter, Washington Post, January 18, 2007"I am concerned that public discussion of my book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid has been diverted from the book's basic proposals: that peace talks be resumed after six years of delay and that the tragic persecution of Palestinians be ended. Although most critics have not seriously disputed or even mentioned the facts and suggestions about these two issues, an apparently concerted campaign has been focused on the book's title, combined with allegations that I am anti-Israel. This is not good for any of us who are committed to Israel's status as a peaceful nation living in harmony with its neighbors." [Continued]

January 16, 2007

Louise Richardson, executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and author of What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat, is Marty Moss-Coane's January 16, 2007, guest on Radio Times. Ms. Richardson explains terrorists' three major motivations: revenge, glory—to compensate for perceived humiliation, and to provoke the powerful to react—better yet, to over-react—to them. President Bush, she argues, has played directly into their hands. She also outlines her recommendations for effective counterterrorism.

Coalition for Peace Action (Central Bucks) and Upper Bucks for Democracy will co-host Shawn Nolan, of the Federal Defender's Office, E.D. Pa., and recently returned from Guantánamo, where he has been working with detainee clients. He will speak about the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, the denial of habeas corpus, and the dangers they pose for U.S. Constitutional law and basic human rights. Mr. Nolan participated in the Guantánamo teach-in on October 5, 2006, at Temple University's Beasley School of Law.

Nolan challenges the administration’s claims about who is imprisoned at Guantánamo and whether U.S. treatment of detainees accords with U.S. and international law. “It’s outrageous. This is a classic study of government out of control. They go on TV and say, ‘We don’t torture,’ but they do!” He also disputes the government’s claim that “these are the worst of the worst.” He points out that only 5 percent of those being held were actually picked up on battlefields. Many were turned in by bounty hunters responding to U.S. leaflets dropped over Afghanistan promising “wealth and power beyond your dreams . . . millions of dollars.”

“They’ve been stripped of habeas corpus, and they can’t challenge their detention,” Nolan says. “Some of them have been there five years. There’s no due process. This is Star Chamber litigation. No one can see the light of day.”

Raised in the area, Nolan graduated from Lansdale Catholic High School in 1981. In addition to his work with Federal Community Defender, he is Adjunct Professor of Social Justice with the Great Lakes College Association.

January 04, 2007

"So my answer [to question] is that the Military Commissions Act does not afford the detainees a fair trial, and the Congress would have been better off to take heed from what the Supreme Court was truly telling them in the decision of Hamdan, which is that if you aren't going to use the civil courts, which is where I practice, use the Code of Military Justice. We have things in place. And so you as involved taxpayers—or else you wouldn’t be here, you as involved citizens, you know, should really hear that."—Cristi Charpentier, January 11, 2007

Coalition for Peace Action (Central Bucks) and Upper Bucks for Democracy will co-host Cristi Charpentier and Shawn Nolan, both of the Federal Defender's Office, E.D. Pa., and recently returned from Guantánamo, where they have been working with detainee clients. They will speak about the denial of habeas corpus, the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, and the dangers they pose for U.S. Constitutional law and basic human rights.

Ms. Charpentier, who grew up in Doylestown and graduated from CB West, will speak on January 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Plumstead Township Building, 5186 Stump Rd., Plumsteadville, PA 18949, and Mr. Nolan on January 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Celtic Cross Room of the Doylestown Presbyterian Church, 127 E. Court St., Doylestown, PA 18901.

Ms. Charpentier and Mr. Nolan participated in the Guantánamo teach-in on October 5, 2006, at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. Background on Guantánamo from Legal Times:

When the U.S. military began shipping prisoners from the war on terror to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, one goal was clear: to keep them outside the reach of the U.S. court system. But nearly five years later, those cases remain stuck exactly where the Bush administration didn't want them to be. [continued]

Andy Warren and Fred Viskovich, Democratic candidates for Bucks County Commissioner, will also speak on January 11 in Plumsteadville.